Ó Copyright by Mark Edward Pfeifer (1999)

Abstract/Acknowledgements/Table of Contents - [ Chapters - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 ] -  Appendices - References Cited

The following chapter will assess the social demography of the Vietnamese ethnic origin population residing in the Toronto CMA. Utilizing census data, the demographic distribution of the enumerated Vietnamese aggregate will be compared to that associated with the total population of the metropolitan area as a whole as well as several other significantly sized "visible minority" groups. This demographic profile is intended to provide a contextual basis to facilitate the analysis of Vietnamese adaptation in subsequent chapters. This chapter discusses the movement of Vietnamese to Toronto in waves of migration and the varying social characteristics of individuals who came to the city in these differing time periods. The remainder of the chapter compares the Vietnamese population enumerated in the 1991 census to the entire Toronto CMA population in terms of its distribution among the variables of age and gender, immigrant status, period of arrival in Canada, immigrant and citizenship status, knowledge of official languages, educational background, birth rates, and religious affiliation.

Scholars have identified several streams of Vietnamese migration to North America since 1975. Prior to 1975, only very small numbers of Vietnamese lived in the United States and Canada. Most of these individuals were representatives of the South Vietnam government or students who had studied at American and Canadian universities in the 1950s, 1960s or early 1970s. The first wave of refugees arrived in the immediate period following the Fall of Saigon in the spring of 1975. A second wave of refugees came to Canada and the United States after 1976 and continued to arrive through the early 1990s. Another sizable group of Vietnamese has been sponsored as refugees and more commonly as immigrants by family members already residing in North America since the mid-1980s.

The first wave of Vietnamese refugees were primarily army officers, middle-level bureaucrats, students, and professionals associated with the former South Vietnamese government. A good number of these people were well-educated and from middle to upper class economic backgrounds. Members of this initial group of refugees typically had lived in large population centres in Vietnam with regular exposure to western culture and the English language due to their contact with foreign officials during the French occupation and subsequent American involvement in Vietnam (Dorais et al., 1987; Gold, 1992; Rutledge, 1992).

In 1978, natural disasters and political persecution, as well as continued regional conflict in Indochina, precipitated a renewed exodus of refugees. Residents of the former South Vietnam continued to flee. Many of the Vietnamese who left the country in 1978 or later, escaped by sea, often in dangerously unfit vessels. The "boat people" who survived the trip sought asylum in refugee camps located in neighbouring nations including Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. In response to the situation, a conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, at which several western countries, including Canada and the United States, agreed to step up their intake of Vietnamese and other Indochinese refugees. The second wave of Vietnamese migrants were a far more diverse group compared to the more homogenous first wave. A higher proportion of the latter arrivals came from rural as opposed to urban settings and persons from Central and North Vietnam were better represented in the second wave of refugees. In general, these latter-arriving Vietnamese possessed more limited educational backgrounds and English-speaking skills. In addition, the socioeconomic background of the second wave refugees was more diverse than that of their counterparts who were resettled earlier. A larger percentage of these Vietnamese had been employed in primary occupations such as farming and fishing, although significant proportions had also worked in professional jobs, the military, governmental positions or commercial enterprise in Vietnam (Dorais et al., 1987; Rumbaut, 1989a; Rumbaut, 1989b; Dorais, 1991; Gold, 1992; Rutledge, 1992; Rumbaut, 1989a; Hung and Haines, 1996).

In Canada, the Vietnamese population is disproportionately composed of second wave arrivals compared to that in the United States. While 145,000 Vietnamese came to the U.S. immediately following the 1975 collapse of the Thieu regime in South Vietnam, only about 6,000 Vietnamese came to Canada at this time (Indra, 1987). Large numbers of Vietnamese began coming to Canada in 1978, following the Geneva conference organized to deal with the Indochinese refugee crisis, as federal officials substantially increased the number of Indochinese refugees they were willing to accept (Dorais et al., 1987; Indra, 1987; Wilson, 1995). The Canadian government’s decision to increase refugee quotas was supplemented by the establishment of a parallel private sponsorship system, which was encouraged by the federal government and coordinated primarily by church-affiliated organizations (Adelman, 1982; Lam, 1996). By 1982, more than 60,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians had been resettled through the means of both private and government sponsorship (Indra, 1987; Wilson 1995). Table 4.1 shows the number of permanent residents from Vietnam who arrived in Toronto annually from 1978 to 1993, according to Department of Immigration and Citizenship records. These figures obviously include both ethnic Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese who had resided in Vietnam. Several important trends are evident in the data. First, it is not surprising that the largest number of refugees arrived in the Toronto metropolitan area from Vietnam in 1979 and 1980 at the time of the "Boat People" crisis. The refugee intake decreased significantly in the early and mid-1980s. In the 1988-1991 period, the number of refugees coming to Toronto from Vietnam rose again, reflecting the renewed resettlement of Vietnamese who had been residing in camps located throughout Southeast Asia and Hong Kong in particular. While not shown in the data, persons originating from North Vietnam constituted a larger proportion of this latter wave compared to a decade earlier (Cam Chau Tran, Personal Interview, July 27, 1997).

In the 1990s, Vietnamese sponsored by family members have become by far the most significant component of the overall migration flow. This situation reflects the fact that many of the Vietnamese who arrived in Canada in the late 1970s through the early to mid-1980s have become relatively well established in Canadian society and have subsequently sponsored the arrival of parents and siblings left back in Vietnam. The number of Vietnamese arriving in Toronto as independent immigrants peaked during the mid-1980s. The rise in new arrivals in the independent category in 1984 and 1985 appears to be something of an anomaly. In both the 1978-1983 and 1986-1993 periods those Vietnamese coming to Toronto as independent immigrants constituted a much smaller proportion of the migration compared to those who either came as refugees or were sponsored by relatives.

The location of private sponsors throughout Canada ensured an initially high degree of geographic dispersal of the Vietnamese throughout different regions of Canada. Subsequently, a range of factors have combined to stimulate the secondary migration of Vietnamese away from their initial sites of resettlement to the largest population centres in the country. Settlement services, such as English language training and employment training, were to be found mostly in the larger Canadian cities as opposed to rural locations or smaller towns and cities. In addition, employment opportunities for refugees and immigrants were perceived to be far greater in the larger urban centres. Furthermore, sizable Vietnamese population aggregations and the presence of family and friends as well as co-ethnic social services, commercial activities, and ethnic associations could only be found in the largest cities, also attracting Vietnamese resettled elsewhere in Canada. Finally, the extreme winter cold in some areas motivated many Vietnamese who were first placed in more remote regions to relocate to areas with more moderate climates including Southern Ontario, the Montreal area and the Vancouver region (Lavoie, 1989; Wilson, 1995).

In 1996, Statistics Canada estimated that over 130,000 Vietnamese resided in Canada (Table 4.2). According to the 1996 census, Toronto possessed about 42,000 enumerated individuals claiming a Vietnamese ethnic origin either as a single or multiple response on the census form in 1996. Among the other metropolitan areas in Canada, Montreal was a distant second to Toronto with close to 28,000 enumerated Vietnamese. Vancouver was next with around 16,000 Vietnamese counted. Approximately 10,000 Vietnamese were tallied in Calgary and about 8,000 in Edmonton. Ottawa, Winnipeg, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, London and Windsor were other Canadian CMAs where more than 1000 Vietnamese were counted in 1996.

Comparisons of the Vietnamese mother tongue population in the major Toronto CMA municipalities clearly show an expansion of the proportion of Vietnamese living in suburban parts of the metropolitan area (Table 4.3). In 1986, just over 50% of all Vietnamese individuals enumerated in the CMA lived in the City of Toronto compared to just over 1/3 in 1996. Conversely, the population residing in the city of North York increased from about 15% to around 20% in the same time period. About 1/5 of the total Vietnamese population lived in the Peel Region municipalities of Brampton and Mississauga in 1996 compared to about 12% in 1986. At the same time, the percentage of Vietnamese in the CMA living in Metropolitan Toronto decreased from about 85% to just under ¾ of the total enumerated population. Table 4.3 also clearly shows that the highest growth rates of the Vietnamese population over the decade were in outlying portions of the metropolitan area including North York, Mississauga, and Brampton as opposed to central city Toronto.

In comparison to the total immigrant population and members of other minority groups residing in the Toronto CMA, the Vietnamese population was distinguished by the relative recency of its arrival within Canada in 1991 (Table 4.4). Just over 1/4 of the Vietnamese had come to Canada in the 1971-1980 decade, while over 70% of the tabulated population had arrived in 1981 or later. Of all the minority groups, the Vietnamese possessed the largest share of arrivals between 1981 and 1991. By contrast, only about 20% of the total enumerated immigrant population of Toronto had entered the country over the most recent ten year period accounted for in these census figures.

In 1991, the Vietnamese ethnic origin population exhibited the largest proportion of immigrants among any of the visible minority groups in the Toronto CMA (Table 4.5). The immigrant proportion of the Vietnamese population – 82% - outdistanced any of the other predominantly immigrant minority groups. In terms of citizenship status (Table 4.5), about 62% of the Vietnamese population tallied in the Toronto metropolitan area possessed Canadian citizenship in the last census. This figure, while significantly lower than the 84% enumerated among the population as a whole, was comparable to that tabulated among several other predominantly immigrant minority groups including Koreans, Filipinos, Chinese, and South Asians.

According to 1991 census figures, the Vietnamese population in the Toronto CMA exhibited a gender imbalance (Table 4.6). About 54% of the enumerated population were males in 1991. The existence of a disproportionate number of males as opposed to females in the Toronto Vietnamese population was also noted by several research informants, providing support for the census figures. The gender balance within the Vietnamese population contrasts with that of the total population and most of the other major minority groups within the Toronto CMA. The existence of a male majority among the Vietnamese population in Toronto likely reflects the fact that young men were disproportionately represented in the refugee flow which escaped from Vietnam in the late 1970s and through to the early 1990s (Rutledge, 1992; Hung and Haines, 1996).

In terms of age distribution, both Vietnamese males and females were disproportionately represented in the 0-14, and 25-44 age categories when compared to the total population in the Toronto CMA (Tables 4.7 and 4.8). Vietnamese males and females were particularly overrepresented in the 25-44 age category compared to other minority groups and the population as a whole. In 1991, just under 50% of Vietnamese males, and 45% of females were members of the 25-44 group. The figure for males was more than ten percentage points higher than that observed among the total population of the CMA as a whole. In addition, a greater percentage of Vietnamese males were represented in the 25-44 age category compared to any other minority group. The 45% of Vietnamese females who were members of this same age category was almost ten percentage points higher than the figure for the total female population of the CMA. Among other minority groups, only the Filipino women had a higher proportion in this age category. Notably, Vietnamese men and women were underrepresented in the older age categories of 45-64 and 65 and over. The Toronto figures parallel those observed among the Vietnamese in the United States. American researchers have reported that the Vietnamese population is considerably younger compared to the immigrant and total

population of the United States (Rumbaut, 1995; Hung and Haines, 1996). The skewed age distribution of the Vietnamese in both the U.S. and Canada reflects the disproportionate representation of the younger adult cohorts in the refugee flow.

Of the visible minority groups in the Toronto CMA, the Vietnamese possessed the largest enumerated percentage speaking neither English or French – about 17% (Table 4.9). Without a doubt, this figure reflects the recency of arrival of many Vietnamese compared to those individuals belonging to the other minority groups. Not surprisingly, scholars in both the United States and Canada have found English language ability among Vietnamese to be related to length of residence. In a longitudinal study of Southeast Asian refugees resettled in Canada in 1981, Beiser and Johnson (1994) found a stable increase over time in the ability of respondents to use English well and a steady decline in the number of survey respondents who were not able to speak any English.

Historical and situational circumstances also may help explain some of the dif-ferences among the groups on these variables. Members of many of the other minority groups come from countries where the cultural impact of British, French, and American colonialism was felt more strongly than in Vietnam. Despite the French intervention in Vietnam, the share of the Vietnamese population in Toronto with knowledge of French only or French and English was only slightly higher than that observed among most of the other minority groups.

In terms of highest level of schooling achieved, the Vietnamese population in the Toronto CMA was overrepresented at the lower education levels in comparison to the total population and other visible minority groups in 1991 (Table 4.10). The proportion of the Vietnamese population 15 years and over with less than a grade 9 education was 21%, almost double the figure for the total population in the metropolitan area. Of the other minority groups, only the Southeast Asian minority surpassed 20% on this variable.

The largest component of the Vietnamese 15 and over population, almost 50% of the total, fell into the category of having earned a grade 9-13 education with or without a secondary certificate. Again, no other minority group, with the exception of Southeast Asians as a whole, approached the Vietnamese level in this particular classification. Thus, almost 70% of the enumerated Vietnamese in Toronto fell into the two lowest education categories.

In the university level categories of educational achievement, the Vietnamese were very much underrepresented. According to the census, just under 40% the entire CMA population had attended university with or without having earned a certificate or degree. The Vietnamese proportion was 25%. Most of the other minority groups actually possessed larger percentages of individuals with some university-level education compared to the total population in the CMA as a whole.

In terms of birth rate, ever-married Vietnamese females 15 years and over exhibited 2,363 children born per 1000 women (Table 4.11). This figure was notably higher than the rate of 2,045 children born among the total population of women in the Toronto metropolitan area. Vietnamese in the 15 years and over, ever-married category also possessed higher birth rates compared to those apparent among several minority groups including Chinese, Southeast Asians, West Asian/Arabs, Latin Americans, and especially Japanese women. However, the birth rate among Vietnamese women in this category was somewhat lower than that enumerated among Filipino, Black, South Asian, and Korean women. Among ever-married women in the Toronto CMA, aged 15-44 years, the pattern was somewhat similar. The Vietnamese birth rate of 1,686 children born per 1,000 women was higher than the 1,499 average for the total population but the rate tallied among Vietnamese women in this grouping was lower than that observed among several other minority groups including Blacks, Latin Americans, Koreans, West Asians/Arabs, and Southeast Asians as a whole. South Asians, Filipinos, Chinese, and Japanese women possessed lower birth rates than Vietnamese women in this particular category. Finally, among single women, 15 years and over, the Vietnamese birth rate of 194 children born per 1,000 women was notably higher than the average of 136 exhibited by the total population in the Toronto metropolitan area. Within the category of single women, most of the other groups including South Asians, Filipinos, West Asians/Arabs, Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese possessed birth rates lower than that observed among the total population within the Toronto CMA. It should be noted that researchers in the U.S. have similarly observed that Vietnamese women tend to have more children than the American average. (Haines, 1996; Rumbaut, 1989a; Rumbaut 1989b).

In Table 4.12, the religious affiliation of the Vietnamese population is compared to the total population of the Toronto CMA. In contrast to the entire population of the metropolitan area, the largest proportion of the Vietnamese counted in Toronto in 1991 were Buddhists. The enumerated figure of about 43% was notably lower, however, compared to standard estimates for the population of Vietnam. The proportion of Vietnam’s population which is Buddhist is usually estimated to be in the 70-80% range (Thien-An 1975, McClellan 1993). On the other hand, 20% of the enumerated Vietnamese population were Catholics, compared to 36% of the CMA population as a whole. The share of Vietnamese who were Catholics in the Toronto metropolitan area was about double the standard estimate among the population in Vietnam. Certain scholars have noted that a disproportionate share of the Vietnamese who came to the United States as refugees were Catholics. A larger proportion of Catholics left Vietnam as refugees as a result of particularly severe persecution directed towards Catholics in South Vietnam after the fall of Saigon (Rutledge, 1985). About 4% of the Vietnamese enumerated in the Toronto area were Protestants, compared to almost 35% of the entire population in the metropolitan area. This compares favourably to the less than 1% of the

total population in Vietnam estimated to belong to Protestant denominations. Although it is not shown in the table, it is also notable that the census data indicated that most Vietnamese Protestants in Toronto belonged to the "other" Protestant category. Few are members of the United and Anglican churches, the largest denominations among the total population. Interviews with several research informants including Vietnamese clergymen suggest that the majority of the Vietnamese Protestants in Toronto probably belong to the evangelical Christian Missionary Alliance denomination.

It should also be pointed out that the proportion of the Vietnamese population who told the census takers they were Buddhists may not reflect the actual number of Vietnamese adherents of this particular religion. Around 32% of the Vietnamese population claimed to have no religious affiliation in contrast to about 15% for the population of Toronto CMA as a whole. This number contrasts sharply with standard estimates for the population of Vietnam. Most scholars of Vietnam culture claim upwards of 90% of Vietnam’s population possess some form of religious attachment, whether it be Catholicism, Cao Daism, Protestantism, Islam, or some form of Buddhism, Confucianism, and ancestor worship (Hickey 1964). It seems likely that many Vietnamese Buddhists selected the "No affiliation" category when answering the census. The minority status of the Buddhist religion likely serves to deter public identification with this religion in a Canadian context. In addition, it should be observed that the census form did not include response space for some of the other religions commonly practiced by Vietnamese including Cao Daism and forms of Confucianism as well as ancestor worship. It is anyone’s guess how Vietnamese respondents who practise these religions chose to fill out their census forms. It seems plausible that these persons may have variably chosen the "Buddhist", "No Affiliation", or "Other Religion" responses.

In 1996, over 130,000 persons of Vietnamese ethnic origin were enumerated in all of Canada. About ¼ of the total Vietnamese population counted in Canada lived in the Toronto metropolitan area. Among Canadian cities, only the population in Montreal approached the Toronto figure. Demographically, the Vietnamese aggregate differed at least somewhat from the total population and other minority groups in the Toronto CMA in terms of the share it registered on most variables. The demographic profile of the Toronto Vietnamese in part reflects the relative recency of the arrival of this population. In addition, the circumstances of the Vietnamese arrival shape the demography of this group. Most Vietnamese residing in Toronto came to Canada as refugees or were sponsored by family members. Few arrived as independent immigrants. In this regard, Vietnamese differ significantly from most of the other predominantly immigrant minority groups.

Period of arrival figures clearly demonstrate the relatively short period of time most Vietnamese have resided in Canada compared to the overall population and most of the other minority groups residing in the Toronto area. While over 80% of the enumerated Vietnamese in Toronto were immigrants – the highest proportion of any of the minority groups – more than 60% of Vietnamese already possessed Canadian citizenship as of 1991. The share of Vietnamese with Canadian citizenship was in fact comparable to several other predominantly immigrant minority groups including Koreans, Filipinos, Chinese, and South Asians. The Vietnamese figures are impressive given the relative recency of the arrival of this population compared to these other groups – many of whose members began arriving in large numbers in decades prior to the 1980s. High rates of citizenship among an immigrant population are one measure of integration with the larger Canadian society.

The refugee status of many Vietnamese who came to Canada most likely also has influenced the gender, age, language fluency, and educational profiles of the population in Toronto. While the total population and most other minority groups exhibit a majority of women as opposed to men, the situation among the Vietnamese was just the opposite. The disproportionate share of men within the Vietnamese population reflects the fact that young single male adults were the persons most likely to escape from Vietnam as refugees throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. The sizable refugee component of the population also strongly skews the age profile. The younger age groups were very much overrepresented among persons of Vietnamese ethnic origin. In 1991, the Vietnamese possessed a far greater representation in the 25-44 age category compared to the total population and all of the other minority groups. Conversely, the Vietnamese displayed a significant underrepresentation in the 45-64 and 65 and over age categories. Many Vietnamese persons in these age groups were too frail to attempt to leave the country as refugees. It also seems logical that the overrepresentation of Vietnamese in the 0-14 age category relative to both the total population and several of the other minority groups could be at least somewhat attributed to the sizable cohort of Vietnamese females within the 25-44 age category – the prime childbearing years.

The relative recency of arrival associated with most of the population has probably contributed to the significant share of Vietnamese who cannot speak either English or French. The Vietnamese proportion was higher than that exhibited by any of the other major minority groups included in the census figures. The relatively large share of Vietnamese who did not possess knowledge of either of the official languages was also likely influenced by the fact that most Vietnamese came to Canada as refugees or as family-sponsored as opposed to independent immigrants. Ability in English or French is not as influential in the admission criteria for persons coming seeking to come to Canada in the refugee or family sponsorship categories. Vietnamese as an aggregate were also overrepresented in the categories of lesser educational achievement, again at least somewhat reflecting the disproportionate number of Vietnamese who arrived as refugees or family-sponsored immigrants compared to several of the other primarily immigrant minority groups.

Finally, 1991 census data show that the largest number of Vietnamese in Toronto were Buddhists. However the Buddhist proportion of the enumerated Toronto Vietnamese population was much lower than commonly estimated for the entire population of Vietnam. About 1/5 of the enumerated Vietnamese possessed a Catholic affiliation and four percent were Protestants. Almost 1/3 of the population did not claim a religious affiliation. This figure likely included many Buddhists who chose the "no-affiliation" category given the minority status and low visibility of Buddhism within Canada. Indeed, less than 1% of the entire population in the Toronto Metropolitan Area claimed a Buddhist affiliation in 1991.

To Chapter 5

Abstract/Acknowledgements/Table of Contents - [ Chapters - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 ] -  Appendices - References Cited

		Updated February 09, 2004